Conservation group Center for Biological Diversity has filed suit against the Trump administration for failing to provide endangered species protection to the Rio Grande cooter, a freshwater turtle that lives in the Pecos and Rio Grande watersheds in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.
The Jan. 8 lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that federal wildlife officials’ 2022 decision to not list the turtles puts them at risk of extinction, and contends the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignored “mounting evidence” in order to conclude the species didn’t require protection.
“The extinction of these irreplaceable turtles would cost the Southwest a vital piece of natural heritage, so it’s shocking that federal officials failed to protect them,” said Camila Cossío, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Rio Grande cooters are threatened by climate change, unsustainable water usage and the oil industry’s influence, but we can save them with Endangered Species Act protections.”
The turtles, which have distinctive marbled yellow striping on their shells, are vulnerable both to habitat loss from climate change but also potentially pollution from oil and gas extraction, Cossío told Source NM in a phone call.
“They’re really slow to mature so sometimes it’s hard to see the effects, the negative effects that’s happening, until it’s too late,” she said.
Federal protections under the Endangered Species Act would provide states funding for turtle conservation and breeding programs, she said.
There’s also been documentation of a tenfold increase in international sales of the turtles — often taken from the wild — for the international pet and food trades, with the federal government data showing an increase of 20 turtles were exported in 2016 to more than 350 in 2020.
“Just taking one turtle out of the wild for trade is a ripple effect on multiple generations of turtles,” she said.
